Too Late for the Saviour
by Walks-in-Shadows
Summary: A more realistic result of the abuse that Harry suffers under. AU. Character death, suicide. Rated M for distressing themes.


Too Late for the Saviour.

Harry Potter gently opened his window and released Hedwig to deliver his letter to Severus Snape, then, tightly clutching the scroll he'd received from Dumbledore in his right hand, he prepared himself, took a deep breath, and placed the strongest block he could on his magic before kicking over the chair in his bedroom at 4 Privet Drive.

Because he was in his room, playing games on the PlayStation he'd been given by his parents for Christmas the previous year, Dudley Dursley never heard the slight thump of the chair hitting the floor in the room next to his own, and neither did his father, Vernon, who was sitting in the lounge, watching Panorama on BBC One. In fact, the only person who heard the sound was Petunia Dursley, who was in the kitchen, putting the finishing touches on a small cake for her 'darling Duddiekins.' She stopped when she heard the noise, but when it wasn't repeated, decided that 'the freak' must have simply fallen over or something. After all, it wasn't like he was allowed to do his freakish tricks outside that school of his, and now that murderous godfather of his was dead, so it really didn't matter if he hurt himself, just as long as he could do his chores in the morning. All they had to do was feed the boy enough and let him write letters every three days, and none of the 'freaks' he associated with at school would disrupt her perfect family.

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Severus Snape was just putting the final ingredients in a potion for Voldemort when something large and white flew into the room before resolving itself into a snowy owl that immediately held its leg out for the double agent to take the letter from it.

"Hmm? Hedwig? What are you doing here? Is that from Potter?"

As the owl hooted softly in confirmation, Snape took the piece of parchment and unrolled it, and what the letter said was this:

"Dear Professor Snape,

"I know we haven't exactly got along since I first came to Hogwarts, especially after my invasion of your privacy last term, but I truly feel you're the only person I can trust with this.

"For as long as I can remember, my life has been a living hell. At first I was only punished with the cupboard under the stairs for any display of my 'freakishness' as the Dursleys call it, but then came denial of food, chores which were impossible to complete, and beatings for the slightest transgression, even when I had no idea what I was supposed to have done. I can actually hear what you're probably thinking as I write this, that I'm the 'Golden Boy' and none of what I've stated could possibly have happened because I'm worshipped everywhere I go, but rest assured, I'm not worshipped at Privet Drive, and I would never lie at a time like this.

"You see, after years of coming back for more and more abuse every summer because the blood wards supposedly keep me 'safe,' I finally snapped and cried for twenty minutes for apparently no reason, although it was really because Sirius is gone and I'm the one responsible for his death. Aunt Petunia actually got concerned about me for the first time in her life and dragged me to the doctor, who referred me to a psychiatrist.

"It was four weeks after I got put on paroxetine - that's like a mood improving potion for muggles - that I realised things weren't getting better, they were only getting worse, and it really wasn't helping matters getting sent unfulfilled promises of being rescued from here by the Weasley twins. So when I received a false promise from Dumbledore that he was coming to get me out of this hellhole, I decided enough was enough and I wasn't going to be hurt in any way from now on. That's why, by the time you read this, I'll already be dead. Everything I own is to be split equally between you and Draco Malfoy, since your treatment of me has always been open and consistent, and the others can have just what their 'care' of me has earned them, nothing.

"Please forgive me for everything I've done, especially this, but I cannot live in this undeserved hell any longer.

"Yours sincerely, Harry James Potter, aka 'The Boy Who Lived.'"

Once he'd finished reading the letter, Snape used a Dupliquill to write a quick note, sending one copy to the Weasleys with Hedwig, one with his own owl to Dumbledore, and the rest of the copies to all the others via Floo. Once this had been done, he sat and silently prayed to Merlin that the Potter boy was merely attention seeking.

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At around eleven o'clock, Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore strode up the path to the front door of the Dursley's house and rang the doorbell. He had come to see the Boy Who Lived as he had promised, and to take him to the Burrow for the rest of the summer. Although not before one little errand had been completed, however.

As Dumbledore stood on the front doorstep, he heard Harry's Uncle Vernon shouting, "Who the blazes is calling at this time of night?"

Once the door was opened, the wizard said pleasantly, "Good evening. You must be Mr. Dursley. I daresay Harry has told you I would be coming for him?" Then, as he saw the large muggle's face turn the same shade as his dressing gown, the headmaster of Hogwarts continued, "Judging by your look of stunned disbelief, Harry did _not_ warn you I was coming. However, let us assume that you have invited me warmly into your house. It is unwise to linger overlong on doorsteps in these troubled times."

After the appearance of Dudley, the conversation carried on in the living room, then Dumbledore asked, "Where _is_ Harry, by the way? I would have thought he'd have come down to see me by now, he's never kept me waiting so long before. Do you mind if I go to see him? His room's that way, you say?" He started to climb the stairs, then a few minutes later, the muggles downstairs heard him cry out, "Oh, no! Harry, my dear boy, why did you do this to yourself? What caused you to break in this way?"

Harry's aunt, uncle, and cousin dashed up the stairs, and what they saw shocked them more deeply than when Hagrid had given Dudley a pig's tail, for in the room, the elderly wizard was on his knees, head bowed in sorrow, tears falling from his eyes, and in front of him, the body of the Saviour of the Wizarding World was suspended from a ligature securely attached to the light fitting in his bedroom.

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Two weeks after Dumbledore had found him hanging in his room, Harry was buried next to his parents in the plot in Godric's Hollow, all his friends there to mourn him and scatter earth on his coffin after it was lowered into the ground with the aid of a levitation spell, the whole proceedings carefully hidden from the muggles by various disillusionment charms and notice-me-not spells. It was the week after this that Snape and Malfoy came into their inheritances, but they shared what they got equally with all the others except Dumbledore. The reason for sharing was that the only letter from the twins that summer which mentioned rescuing Harry was one that said if nobody else got him out of Privet Drive by the end of the first week in August, they would, and the reason Dumbledore got nothing was because it was he who had sent the Boy Who Lived back into an abusive situation every year just to keep up the blood wards, not even bothering to have him properly checked on, and thus contributing to his premature death. In fact, both the Daily Prophet and the Quibbler got a copy of Harry's suicide letter, although no one knew how as Snape had had to be with Voldemort the week that had happened.

After the loss of Harry Potter, the whole Wizarding World grieved for him before losing hope and quickly being overtaken by Voldemort and his army of Death Eaters, the Dark Mark being seen in the sky above more and more dwellings. After this, the Dark Army quickly began destroying the muggle world, causing the Dursleys to wish they'd never spoilt their son and treated their nephew the way they had.

However, all their regrets came far too late for the Saviour.

Copyright © 2011 Romersa's Protégé. Individuals and groups are free to copy and share this work for non-commercial purposes. All other rights reserved.


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